At 35, Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski has reached the age when players at other positions have to hang up their cleats. But Janikowski says he thinks it’ll be a long time before he walks away.
Janikowski told the San Francisco Chronicle that he believes he can play into his early 40s, and he hopes he’s able to do so in Oakland.
“I would love to stay here and finish my career,” he said. “This is where I started and where I would like to finish. . . . I can go seven or eight years. If I stay healthy, I can keep going. I want to play as long as I can and win the Super Bowl. That’s the ultimate goal.”
Kickers can make it into their 40s -- the 42-year-old Jason Hanson retired from the Lions this year -- so it’s not out of the question for Janikowski to play seven or eight more years.
And if Janikowski were to play seven or eight more years at the level he played at last year, he’d have a chance to put his name atop multiple kicking categories in the NFL record book. Janikowski currently has 324 career field goals, including 31 last season. If he averaged 31 field goals a year for the next eight years, he’d have a total of 572 field goals, which would break Morten Andersen’s all-time record of 565. Janikowski would also have a chance at breaking Andersen’s all-time record of 2,544 points scored, although Janikowski’s career extra point total (417) has been held back by playing on teams that don’t score a lot of touchdowns.
Janikowski already owns a share of the record for longest field goal ever (63 yards) and he’s the only player in NFL history to make more than one 60-yard field goal in his career. If Janikowski were to continue playing at his current level for seven or eight more years, he’d have a case to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame.